r/basement

I’ve been living here for a month and I think a half or a bit and I just need some advice and stuff to help with making it look better
Anything is allowed to be moved except the white table with the fan, it holds my household’s security system and it will be changed to be on a rack but is immovable

Found our dream house, but there are some concerns here we found in the basement.

Bowing wall on finished basement well, and on the same wall (but in unfinished side) there’s a “repaired” crack in the foundation with epoxy.

Also on the outside near window there’s crack in the foundation straight up that looks deep.

There are some other issues that need inspection in the roof and sump pump.

Planning to get an orchestra of inspectors in this place but what are your guys’ thoughts? Almost wondering is this is a lost cause because I’m assuming this could cost 30-40k+ in repairs.

Would appreciate recommendations.. almost feeling like we should walk unless they lower the cost by 50k.

Purchased this house ~2 years ago and would like to do something to make the basement more usable. The previous owners had an interior French drain installed around the perimeter and the steel beams added about 10 years ago. Have not had any moisture or water problems since living here, but I don’t necessarily want to frame/drywall just in case.

My ideal is that I make the walls look a little nicer somehow (the “newer” mortar is not a good look) and add a wall to close off the space used as a home gym. Eventually would plan to build a bar by the stairs.

My questions:
- Since the previous owners already painted the cement block walls, is my only real choice to just touch up with paint or cover with paneling / drywall to make it look better?
- What can I do for flooring? The slab is relatively uneven, which I feel limits my options.
- Any just general advice on what makes the most sense for a basement that historically had water issues, but seemingly does not anymore?

My basement. Just noticed a crack in the joists. My wifes father recommended raising the jacks a bit and putting in a 6x6 instead of a 4×4. Can i just sister the main joist? And do you think my house is going to fall down? Built in 1975. Way up north in maine.

Project intention: remove carpet and install LVP

- removing carpet revealed 2 foot wide dampness on concrete floor.

- decision time: continue with original intention of installing LVP or rip open wall.

- ripped open paneled wall

- result showing moisture in center, aligning with the window

- details: 1960 built single story home

Hi all, we bought a house in a flat wet area while knowing that the basement waterproofing needed some work. The previous homeowners had installed some kind of interior drain, although there's no sump pump and it doesn't appear to be connected to anything, so it hasn't worked very well. They had finished the basement, but the carpet was wet a lot, the baseboards were soggy, and some of the drywall was moldy. 

 

I had several quotes for waterproofing and I ended up selecting an interior drain with sump pump for the inside, and a French drain and dry well outside to take all of the house gutters a good distance from the house before sending it into the dry well. Work on that starts this week, and I just finished most of the demolition on the lower perimeter of the finished portion. This is where I'm looking for some advice and feedback. 

 

The entire basement isn't completely finished, but this area is. They ran Tyvek down the face of the wall and tucked it under the stud framing, and used batt insulation most places and foam insulation where the depth was reduced. The framing all appeared to have stayed dry since it was installed in 2008, and it looks like the moisture of the drywall was due to capillary action up from the bottom where it hit the carpet and baseboards. The water was coming up through the cold joint in this badly done 'interior drain'. I don't know what we're going to find when we dig up the pipes, but it looks like they thought they could just put perforated PVC pipes under the slab and let the water do... something? 

 

My initial plan was to flip the Tyvek up, then put it all back like I found it, but with pressure treated wood and all of the holes in the Tyvek patched with tape and fresh material. I'll talk to the interior drain contractor to see what they say about fasteners into the new material they're pouring over the new interior drain. 

 

As I'm researching this it  seems like maybe gluing/foaming foam boards behind the studs would be better than any of this Tyvek. In that case I'd have to rip out the rest of the wall and possibly redo a good bit of ceiling, but I'd rather do this right since we're going to the trouble and expense now and I'm not going to be any more eager to do it again in twenty years.

 

So, what authoritative source can I look to for the "right" way to do this? It seems like a lot of sources of information are trying to sell you something, so I appreciate any sources that are widely recognized for correctness and not for a marketing campaign.

Here’s a gallery with some pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/basement-waterproofing-project-54AZfBZ

I recently got the opportunity to purchase my deceased grandmother’s house for a more than reasonable price. I am concerned about the the cinder block wall in the basement/garage. Does anyone know how immediately this needs to be addressed? Can I improve drainage and be fine for many years?

Fairly new homeowners, found some mold and moisture on one part of the wall. The more I took out the more I found and so I decided to tear out all the drywall and insulation (some batting was wet against the wall). I do have interior drainage and a sump pump but not sure what to do next after what I discovered.

The home is from the 1950s, and there’s one basement beam that looks extremely moldy. The basement itself is dry and has no musty smell, and it doesn’t appear to be spreading or getting worse. Still, it looked 100% like mold to me. We tested it, but the results came back negative. Any idea what it could actually be?

Putting an offer in on a ranch with a completely finished basement except for a small room with HVAC. Found this in there and now concerned about mold being behind all the drywall. How much of a disaster would this be? Is it worth it? Should I run?

Got a call from a homeowner recently because they were getting water into the basement around their egress window every time it rained hard.

When we got there, the issue became pretty obvious.
The well was way too shallow. It basically stopped right at the bottom of the window, and there was hardly any clean gravel around it for drainage. So instead of water draining downward properly, mud and water were building up directly against the window area.

We ended up removing the old well, installing a deeper one, adding clean gravel around the well for proper drainage, and resealing around the window.

Honestly it’s kind of crazy how often we run into egress leaks caused by drainage problems like this. A lot of homeowners think they have a major foundation issue when sometimes it’s just the window well setup itself.

Has anybody else here dealt with leaking egress windows before?

If so, how did you solve it? Did the repair actually hold up long term? How expensive was the repair?

We believe the previous owners painted the floor to make the basement look sealed. Now that it’s the rainy season, this paint is lifting. Is this bad bc the paint making it difficult for the floor to breathe?

We have been having water leaking from behind the shower since we moved into our new house. Decided to rip out the shower to inspect behind it and found this. Does anyone know what the potential fix for this is? And what cost we are expecting?

so i want to put in a sink. my budget is tight…
i plan to DIY a no plumbing sink… maybe next to a buffet cabinet. i saw a bathroom vanity with a ceramic sink 11 inches deep. would that look tacky? max cabinet i can add should have depth of 13 inches (approximately my cooler there). i plan on using an electric water dispenser. add 2 -2 gallon containers one for fresh water and gray water.. add a flex pipe under the sink and add a kitchen drain. but the ceramic sink and vanity… i dunno would that look ok?